Private Romeo 2011

Set in the McKinley Military Academy during a recess of some kind, this intimate and moving adaptation of Romeo and Juliet stars a young and vibrant all male cast playing all the parts both male and female. Why these 8 cadets are the only ones left at the school is never mentioned, maybe its punishment for some infractions, but as I said it’s never mentioned.  It begins with a class reading the play with the young cadets casually and jokingly playing the roles when suddenly and seriously they become the characters of the play acting out their parts with determination and dedication to the text and language of the play which is early modern English and is sometimes difficult to follow.  This back and forth might take some people off guard and cause confusion but it soon became apparent what the filmmakers were getting at. I’m not a big Shakespeare fan but I was taken with this toss up of the play featuring a very sexy group of handsome young men playing around. This is a jolt of course seeing this very erotic, gay and sexy take on the classic young love romance with two men, well really boys playing Romeo and Juliet. There are a lot of vibrant sexual toss-ups and red-hot homoerotica and one is of course reminded that in Shakespeare’s day men played all female roles.  There is no cross dressing, just the taking of the female roles by the young cadets and we get all the intrigue and sadness that is in the original play. There are some changes made by the director Alan Brown besides the sex changes that includes (spoiler alert) a happy ending. Most of the cast have strong theatre backgrounds and this training comes in handy and serves them well for this very strenuous and complex take on R & J.   Standouts include Seth Numrich as Romeo, Matt Doyle as Juliet and Hale Appleman as Mercutio and Lord Capulet who by the way is brilliant. Shakespeare has an elastic history, just look at the many different interpretations and versions of his plays that have traveled across the centuries including a little musical called “West Side Story”.  The end credits feature Matt Doyle singing a beautiful version of “You Made Me Love You” as the credits roll and a frisky Seth Numrich as his Romeo briefly spins and jumps for joy. If this doesn’t bring a smile to your face, and a swoon to your body I don’t know what will.